31 replies to this topic

[Bloodshed Romance]

well, easiest test would be shove the 7970 in a secondary machine.. if you have a buddy or families computer.. doesn't have to be a gaming computer.. if their PSU can't handle it.. use one of your two powersupplies

[Zyllos]

Well, I do have an old computer that has an older Corsair 750w PSU...

Hmm...

[Zyllos]

Ya, I think it's the video card.

I have RMA'ed it but still no response from XFX.

[Bloodshed Romance]

it might take a day or so but as long as you have it registered on xfxforce.com and have started a support ticket, they'll get to you... I was lucky enough to have an AMD a-10 6800K that is currently playing all of the games I play with my 7970

[Zyllos]

Bloodshed Romance, on 05 August 2013 - 08:05 AM, said:

i'm not sure that the motherboard is the cause as the asus sabertooth is one of the toughest boards around.. but I guess anything is possible.. i'm acutally in the middle of a XFX RMA with my card because it died.. all you have to do is open a support ticket and pay the shipping to ship your card to Ontario cali if you're in the states

and about mem test... its a long explanation but to put it simple.. it has a better chance of marking a Ram Stick as a fail if you do them one at a time.. I had to go through a machine that kept dying because of ram that had 8 sticks.. one of my engineer friends said do them one at a time.. I was pissed because its a grueling process but sure enough.. it got one bad doing them one at a time.. but if you've narrowed it down to GPU then great, because XFX support has been kind to me thus far.. only had to contact them twice... my 6770 fan went out and they send me a fan off of a dead card... and my 7970 GHZ which went pop...

Still waiting on XFX to respond to my support ticket, which was placed almost 3 days ago.

Almost to the point where I say screw it and buy another videocard...

[MrPils]

Have you tried the gfx card in a different pcie slot? Its definitely related to the graphics card, you have eliminated the cpu and memory by running furmark (its not cpu or mem intensive at all). Outside chance its the motherboard (possibly even pcie slot), but most likely the graphics card is on its last legs. GL with the rma!

[Bloodshed Romance]

where'd you send your support ticket from? xfxforce.com???

they got to me pretty quick... not sure what might be holding them up...

[Guardian00]

Looks like a RAM problem, memory testers are not perfect.

I recomend to test every single memory module (remove others and leave one to test it using your PC).

I prefer and recomend to no pass a 50°C limit on the CPU, aditional heat coud affect the power regulators on the main board near the CPU. Almost all MoBo have a very bad cooling system for the cpu's power supply (lots of phases, but no a good cooling)

[Zyllos]

MrPils, on 07 August 2013 - 07:21 AM, said:

Have you tried the gfx card in a different pcie slot? Its definitely related to the graphics card, you have eliminated the cpu and memory by running furmark (its not cpu or mem intensive at all). Outside chance its the motherboard (possibly even pcie slot), but most likely the graphics card is on its last legs. GL with the rma!

Yes, I have 3x PCIE slots and they all cause the exact same shutdown in the exact same manner.

Also, if I remove the 8x MSAA from FurMark test, thus giving more FPS, I shut down MUCH faster, which just points more torward the GPU.

Bloodshed Romance, on 07 August 2013 - 07:25 AM, said:

where'd you send your support ticket from? xfxforce.com???

they got to me pretty quick... not sure what might be holding them up...

http://www.xfxsupport.com is where I sent my ticket (I had to set up an account, enter my S/N on the video card, and then open a support ticket). I found no way to submit a support ticket through www.xfxforce.com as any options there directed me to www.xfxsupport.com. I also found no direct way to ask for an RMA but instead I made a support ticket with the "Auto Power Off" reported fault and "Temperature" FAQ.

If there is another way, please tell me.

Guardian00, on 07 August 2013 - 07:48 AM, said:

Looks like a RAM problem, memory testers are not perfect.

I recomend to test every single memory module (remove others and leave one to test it using your PC).

I prefer and recomend to no pass a 50°C limit on the CPU, aditional heat coud affect the power regulators on the main board near the CPU. Almost all MoBo have a very bad cooling system for the cpu's power supply (lots of phases, but no a good cooling)

I am 99% certain it is not a RAM issue due to testing the ram sticks. I also removed the XFX 7970 and tried the HD 4890 with the exact same tests and I did not shutdown. RAM would have been under the same stress.

It's a possibly that the CPU is not cooled that well but how in the heck do you cool the CPU more than I am doing now unless I want to get watercooled. Plus, there are many others who run their CPUs at my temperatures, which is within tolerance, and they do not have any issues.

Also, the mobo is pretty hot to the touch on the heatsinks but they are not uncomfortable or cause pain. Plus, the readouts is not too high (like 113F/45C), which is within tolerance according to my mobo specifications.

With all of this, I am almost certain it is the video card. The only thing I can think of why it's happening now, after flawlessly running for a year, was that the heatsink/fan on the video card was just bearly dissipating enough heat and after being hot for so many months, the heatsinks are no longer actually making good contact, thus can not dissipate the heat fast enough.

But this is hard to determine as EVGA Precision X reads ~78C (which also FurMark does) when it shuts down, every time. But according to the XFX DD 7970 specifications, it can run up to 95C before it has issues. So maybe the temperature sensor is not placed exactly right or is not working 100% but I am not sure.

But all of these together points to the video card, in my eyes.

[Bloodshed Romance]

i'd agree at this point that your GPU is your problem..
so when you login to xfxsupport.com and goto http://www.xfxsuppor...ueryTicket.aspx
(xfxsupport > view existing support tickets > Details (on current support ticket) )
to view your support ticket what does the status say in the top right??
mine says with technician and I think I got my video card back from fed-ex yesterday.. just currently out of town so I haven't gotten to verify that yet... (no its not sitting on my porch. room mates picked it up but don't like opening my stuff because its nice)

Edited by Bloodshed Romance, 08 August 2013 - 05:19 AM.

[MrPils]

Did you check GPUz to see if it gives you the other temperature readouts? Your XFX card may not have them, but reference cards give you memory, die, pcb and power temperatures and all of these should be viewable using GPUz. You are seeing only the GPU temp in Precision, it could be that you're having heat issues elsewhere on the card (I suspect the power componentry is overheating).

[RicoPendejo]

If your PC isn't Blue Screening or logging errors in the Event Viewer you have a bad power supply my friend. I had the same thing happen to me on my last PC build, voltage checked out fine in the diagnostics software, but i randomly restarted constantly. After fighting with it a bit checking everything i could think of i put the PSU under a load test and it failed intermediately. A new power supply and 30 minutes routing my cables and iv'e ran stable since.